When Lincoln switched to alphanumeric names like MKX and MKZ, they were justifiably pilloried for implementing a confusing naming system. Where the Germans (and now Cadillac and Infiniti) had relatively logical names with a clear hierarchy, Lincoln’s names were all over the place. One brand that’s largely avoided criticism is Lexus, whose naming structure is similarly arcane. Turns out, however, the names do mean something, as I discovered upon visiting Lexus’ Australian site.

You might have known LS stood for Luxury Sedan (sorry, ahem, Saloon) and RX stood for Recreational Cross Country (partial credit if you thought “Crossover”), but did you know the IS was “Intelligent Sport”? Or that the NX was “New Crossover”, a name that already seems obsolete as an even newer Lexus crossover (the UX, or “Urban Crossover”) is arriving soon.

Not pictured is the GX, which isn’t sold in Australia. According to Wikipedia, GX means “Grand Crossover” which makes no sense considering it’s an old-school, body-on-frame SUV, although it does align this mid-sized truck with the mid-sized GS. There’s an argument for keeping these seemingly nonsensical names, however. The ES and LS have been around since Lexus’ introduction, while names like IS and RX are almost as old. They may not be evocative names but they have name recognition.

Because I know any discussion of modern Lexus’ inevitably leads to discussion about their design language, I’ll say this: I may be the lone, dissenting voice on Curbside Classic – at least among our more vocal commentariat – who genuinely loves the styling of new Lexus models. That includes the RX which I initially found unpleasant to look at but which has quickly grown on me. In fact, I’d say Lexus’ aggressive design language has helped reinvigorate my interest in the brand and the whole reason I visited the Lexus Australia site was to ogle an IS350, a car very much at the top of my shopping list. Lexus’ vehicles aren’t always class-leading but I really like the direction the brand is going and I want them to succeed.

Not excusing Lincoln one little bit, but the nomenclature for the Acronyms was just as logical as this swill from Lexus. The MKZ was the renamed Zephyr, the MKS was the Sedan, the MKT was touring (a wagon, really), the MKC the crossover, along with the different sized MKX crossover, and the Navigator soldiered on as a real name its entire life, much like the Escalade never got an alphanumeric.
One could, if one was inclined, say that the Lexus nomenclature was more baseless, as none of the cars ever carried a name, none were actually Racing based, nor is the Intelligent Sport, while not a bad car at all, is either very intelligent or sporty. I tend to think that the acronyms are simply ones that fit for whatever was being marketed, not so much as a descriptor of the vehicle. If they were selling low priced models, would they name one SB for stripper base? Probably so…..

Very informative! Please do one on the Honda/Acura lineup: RL, TL, CL, RSX (Integra), TSX, etc. I have no idea what the crossovers/SUVS are called, I am a sedan/coupe guy.

Infiniti’s lineup used to make sense, when their names were a letter and two letters for displacement (Q45, J30, I30/35, M30, M35/45, G20, G35/37). They cheated with the VH41-powered Q45 from 97-01, then went completely off the rails in 2013 when everything became a Q with a meaningless number.

Infiniti’s system makes sense to me. Q means car, QX means crossover and the number corresponds with its price/position in the lineup. Sure, sometimes it’s a bit strange – a Q60 and a QX60 couldn’t be any more different, even if they are similarly priced – but it’s more logical than G, M, Q, EX, FX, JX, QX, none of which mean anything.

Besides, switching to a naming system like Q/QX makes sense in my eyes because then you don’t have to keep changing things whenever there’s a new engine.

On a related note, Lexus just renamed their “200t” models “300” here in Australia because, I’m going to speculate here, people didn’t want to pay more for something with a lower number (200) than what had come before (250), even though the 200 is faster. Now Audi is implementing a naming system where they categorise all of their cars by power and give them a two-digit number after their name, to stop people from thinking “Hey, it’s only a 2.0?!” even when it’s more powerful than a rival 3.5.

I’m not exactly sure why this is still a sore spot. Acuras had model names for, like, 9 model years. It’s been 23 model years since they changed to letters.

Can we let it go at this point? 9 model years doesn’t exactly make a rich history worth of name recognition.

William Stopford

Posted July 10, 2018 at 6:21 PM

Very true, and I’ve come around to the argument that the “RL” name didn’t kill sales of Acura’s flagship so much as the general re-centering of the lineup around the TL, which seemed to offer luxury buyers what they wanted more so than its predecessor the Vigor.

Old Pete

Posted July 10, 2018 at 7:59 PM

Can I put in a vote for the whole Acura thing being lame? The rest of the world knows their products as Hondas. It does seem silly that the car we all (outside US and Canada) still know as a Honda Legend gets called an Acura PDQ or whatever.

GN

Posted July 11, 2018 at 1:14 AM

The launch of the Acura brand in the U.S., along with its brazenly named flagship, had an enormous impact on the market. The cars were desirable and well received, and they generated quite a lot of buzz, including the entry-level Integra. True, that initial imagery soon faded as the products and the names became boring and foregettable, but you can’t discount the initial enthusiasm the brand generated. 23 years from now, no one will be buzzing about an ILX or an RLX, but there are still enthusiasts who revere Integras and Legends.

kiwibryce

Posted July 11, 2018 at 2:17 AM

LOL Ol Pete, thanx to the marvels of no import tariffs we have both flavours of the same cars on our roads and quite a few other JDM badge engineering examples too, it makes for an interesting motoring landscape.

IIRC, the original Lexus intent was to copy Germanic letter/number to denote series and engine displacement. Nothing arty about it. I’m pretty sure that at the launch of the Lexus brand, LS meant “Luxury Sedan” and ES meant “Enty Sedan” and the ’92 SC meant “Sport Coupe.” But later letters (like IS) were less clearly tied to any formula, they were just letters.

The Australian Lexus marketers seems to be coming up with justification for something after the fact, rather than relaying a cohesive nomenclature strategy. And therein lies the problem with alphanumerics-other than for a few established players who have been using the approach for years, there’s not much unique or memorable with the letter/number “names.”

It used to be (like BMW, and Mercedes, too) that the numbers corresponded to the engine size. 🙂 I miss those days. I also really liked Volvo’s structure too. 242: 200 series coupe with a four cylinder. 265 is a 200 five door with a six cylinder.

No problem, Tesla already badges Model S versions with P for performance vs standard, battery capacity in kWh, and D for dual motor (aka AWD). Peak power or peak torque can be used as well.

Motor, controller and battery performance figures do seem less fundamental than engine cylinders and displacement, which is what I’m guessing you have in mind here. But there’s lots of history of engine displacements changing with various bores, strokes and heads, so that’s pretty flexible too.

On further thought, I’ll predict that the single-motor-single-axle / dual-motor-dual-axle distinction will become as common in the next century as the 4 vs 6 vs 8 cylinder distinction has been in the last century. Tesla’s already started it with ‘D’ for dual-motor-dual-axle.

In fact we’ll soon start seeing EVs with four motors, one for each wheel. Better for packaging and for dynamically varying the torque on each wheel for traction or cornering. Is your car a 1, 2 or 4? So far I’m just driving a 1.

This is all very interesting, because the Lexus owners’ portal (if you have a Lexus Enform subscription) has FAQ’s. The naming scheme is one of the FAQ’s…..LS on there is Luxury Sedan, pretty much the same difference. But IS = Innovative Sedan, and ES = Executive Sedan, according to that source anyway. Maybe it varies from one country or region to another.

If you’re not in their demographic, why should they listen to you? Ha!

Besides, it seems to be working for them. US sales ticked over the 300k mark in 2014 when the spindle grille had proliferated throughout the lineup, and they’ve stayed steady since then, making for their best sales performance in ten years. Sales are also the highest they’ve ever been in Europe.

Ive never really understood most alfanumerics and now I drive one named that way but its a very simple system as far as I can tell I have a C5 C=Citroen 5 is the vehicle size, a mate has a C4 its smaller and someone where I worked recently commuted in a C3 smaller again, Lexus badges are confusing as are Honda/Acura and we get both,

The difference between this and the Lincoln debacle is that the names, however meaningless, have been consistent for 20-30 years, building brand recognition and customer loyalty. Does anyone really think there’s anything magically more meaningful to 3-Series and 5-Series, or C-class and E-class, than these Lexus monikers? The problem is not alphanumeric names in and of themselves, but redefining and shuffling them every few years as a substitute for meaningful product management. That’s the problem Cadillac, Lincoln, Acura, and Infiniti are now grappling with.

That’s a solid point although even the Germans have been guilty of shuffling things around, e.g. 1-Series becomes 2-Series, 3-Series becomes 4-Series, ML and GL become GLE and GLS. In their defence though, they tend to change names but then leave them untouched for a while.

An interesting point. People here have also commented on the fact that Toyota has kept their model names consistent over the years, as has Honda, so that a potential buyer understands what a Camry or Corolla is, and will often gravitate to the same model in subsequent purchases. They make the new ones bigger, more loaded, and build up the car, rather than relying on a sloan-type ladder hierarchy. In contrast, GM could not keep the same name on the same car year over year. Take the Cavalier/Cobalt. Same basic car, but given a different name in a poor attempt to fool the public it was all new. Now they offer the Cruze, which is a better car off a better platform, but then, a 2018 Corolla is not on the same platform as the 1998 one was, either. However, a 1998 buyer of a Corolla understands what the 2018 Corolla should be, and probably buys one again.